Almost to Always
by Paige Terner
Summary: Castle wakes up, but Beckett isn't there. But he knows last night was real. He just has to remember it. I wrote this after seeing the promo for Always, so it has a couple spoliers for that. Don't read if you want to be spoiler free.


**Title: Almost to Always**

**Summary: Castle wakes up, but Beckett isn't there. But he knows last night was real. He just has to remember it. I wrote this after seeing the promo for _Always_, so it has a couple spoliers for that. Don't read if you want to be spoiler free.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own most of the characters I write about. If you recognize a name, odds are it isn't mine. But seeing as this is a fanfic website, you probably knew that already.**

**Thanks again to Sunshiny-Kate, the best beta a writer could ask for!**

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Castle opened his eyes far sooner than his body wanted him to. He blinked several times to try to bring everything into focus. His gaze fell on the alarm clock, the numbers as red as the lines in the whites surrounding his bright blue pupils. It was 6:26 in the morning. That meant he'd only gotten about five hours of sleep. But the reason for his lack of sleep was gone. Panic set in.

He sat up abruptly and looked around the room. His breathing slowed as he saw that there was evidence all over the place that he hadn't dreamed the events of last night. Her jacket and shirt lay in a heap near the door. Several books had fallen from a shelf and were in a pile on the floor. A lamp was lying on the floor, its shade broken in half. His shirt was sprawled across the arm of a chair where it had landed. Two pairs of jeans, one his and the other hers, were on the floor next to his bed. And on the headboard hung a lacy, dark purple bra. He couldn't help but smile as he stared at it.

Memories flooded his brain. The knock at the door. The look on her face. The way her hands felt on his cheeks. The way her lips felt as she pressed them desperately to his. How he'd tried to pull away and ask her what was wrong, only to be silenced mid question by another kiss, this one more demanding than the first. How she slowly walked them towards his bedroom, never once breaking their lips apart. They'd stumbled and knocked into things, and he'd never been more grateful that his mother and Alexis were not home.

Once they were behind closed doors, she had finally separated from him, but only long enough to shrug off her wet jacket and tug her mostly damp shirt over her head. Neither had cared about the effect the water soaked clothes might have on his floor. As she leaned back into him, something came alive in him. He'd growled into her mouth and then pushed her into the bookcase, pining her between him and the shelves. Some books had fallen, but they hadn't heard them thumping over the sounds of their passionate moaning.

Several moments later she shoved against his chest and he moved backwards, wrapping his arms around her waist to bring her along. They were both panting by now, as they had not taken the time to worry about proper breathing. Halfway to the bed, she moved her hands from where they'd found purchase in his hair down to untuck his shirt and free each button. She'd continued the lip-lock while she pushed his sleeves down his arms. He'd shaken his hands to fully remove the shirt, and ended up accidentally flinging it across the room. It had hit a lamp just right so as to knock it over, then ended up on the arm of the chair right by the lamp.

Upon reaching the bedside, they'd finally stopped to suck in some much needed deep breaths. Castle had used the moment to move his hands higher and undo her bra. He had slowly lowered the straps down her arms, scraping her skin lightly with his nails as he did so. She'd removed the undergarment much like he had his shirt, and it had landed on the headboard. He had glanced at her scars, but decided not to pay attention to them right then. This wasn't about survival or the case or anything outside this room. This was about them. About where they were now, and where they were going.

Both of them had stepped out of their jeans and underwear, and then he'd unceremoniously thrown the covers back. Before he could say anything, she'd shoved him down to the bed and crawled in after him. She'd hovered over him, their faces inches apart, and whispered her confession of her love for him. For a man who loved words, none had ever meant more to him than those five words she'd spoken. He'd kissed her fiercely then, and she'd returned the embrace with an equal fervor. Then they had made love.

A soft creak brought Castle's mind back to the present. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw Beckett standing in the doorway, wearing his robe and smiling at him. When he smiled back, she shut the door and started towards the bed. As she walked, she shed his robe, revealing that she had retrieved her underwear and found a tee-shirt of his to wear too. She kneeled on the bed next to him and grabbed his face gently, bringing him to her for a soft, loving kiss. After several seconds, she placed her forehead to his.

"Good morning." She said.

"Good morning." He echoed.

"I went to make some coffee, but then I decided not to."

"Why not?"

"I don't have anywhere to be right now, so I don't need to wake up."

"Don't you have work?" He asked as he kissed her neck.

"Not this morning."

"Did you take some time off?"

"No." She pulled him back up to look into his eyes. "But I called Gates and told her I'd be in late. I have a meeting with her this afternoon." She took in a long breath and let it out slowly. "I'm resigning, Rick."

"What?" Castle took her hands in his. "Why on earth would you do that?"

"I'll tell you later." She sighed. "I promise I will explain everything to you. But right now, all I want to do is go back to sleep. And I want you to be here when I wake up."

"I'm not going anywhere, Kate." He replied. "But I thought we agreed last night that there would be no more secrets."

"We did. And there won't be." She smiled again, the corners of her mouth reaching high into her cheeks. "We will talk. Today. Before I go in to tell Gates and after I go in to talk to her." She paused again and squeezed his hands. "I just don't want to talk about it right now."

Castle studied her for several long moments and then broke into a smile of his own.

"Okay." He said.

"Okay?"

He simply nodded and laid down, gesturing for her to do the same. She obliged and laid her head on his chest, pressing her stomach flush to his side. He pulled the covers up to her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her. She put her left arm across his stomach, her hand resting at his hip. He kissed the top of her head and sighed deeply, making her head move along with him. She sighed too, not as loud, but just as contented as his.

"I love you, Castle."

"I love you too, Kate."

"Oh yeah, and your mother said to tell you good morning."

Castle groaned, eliciting a laugh from Beckett. She turned her head enough to press a kiss to his chest and smiled against his skin. He tightened his hold on her and they were asleep within minutes, both unable to fight off the exhaustion of the last few days and the previous night.

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**A/N- I know Marlowe and Co. will do it far, far better. But after seeing the _Always_ promo, I had to write something, and this is what happened. Thanks for reading. -Paige**


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